Infants and other incontinent individuals wear absorbent articles such as diapers to receive and contain urine and other body exudates. Absorbent articles function both to contain discharged materials and to isolate the materials from the body of the wearer and from the wearer's garments and bed clothing. Disposable absorbent articles having many different basic designs are known to the art. For example, U.S. Pat. Re. No. 26,152, entitled "Disposable Diaper" issued to Duncan and Baker on Jan. 31, 1967 describes a conventional disposable diaper which has achieved worldwide acceptance and commercial success. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,433 entitled "Elasticized Disposable Training Pant And Method of Making The Same" issued to Hasse et al. on Sep. 21, 1993 discloses a unitary disposable absorbent article that can be used as a training pant.
In the market today, the consumer has a number of different basic diaper designs to choose from depending on the desired options, comfort and cost, including conventional diapers, belted diapers, and "pull-on" type diapers or training pants. However, many of the absorbent articles on the market today are capable of fitting only a small range of wearer sizes and therefore, the consumer must continually monitor the size of the wearer to determine which diaper will comfortably and effectively fit the wearer. Further, most commercially available diapers are limited in that they can only effectively be used in one of the above-mentioned configurations without any of the benefits attributable to any of the other diaper types. Thus, the consumer must purchase different diapers depending on the desired characteristics for the intended use.
Conventional diaper designs are generally the least expensive type of absorbent article to produce and are generally acceptable for use on babies and persons who are sick or otherwise confined to a bed. A conventional diaper is fitted to the wearer by first placing a portion of the diaper under the wearer (generally, the back portion of the diaper is placed under the buttocks and rear waist of the wearer) and then pulling the remainder of the diaper through the wearer's legs. The rear portion of the diaper is then attached to the front portion of the diaper on each side of the wearer. However, such conventional configurations tend to be very difficult to use when the wearer refuses to remain still throughout the period of application. Further, adult wearers and children in their toilet training stage often find the conventional type absorbent articles difficult to put on themselves without assistance.
The "pull-on" design absorbent article is often used in training pants and incontinence briefs. The "pull-on" design allows the wearer to pull the absorbent article on as pants and does not require any of the fastening steps of the conventional or belted type absorbent article designs. Although this feature is desirable for many adult users and children in their toilet training stage, the "pull-on" design is impractical for many users, especially those bed ridden and small children unable to dress themselves. Pull-on absorbent articles generally lack any features that allow the diaper to be put on, removed or checked for soiling without removal of the diaper and the wearer's outer clothing. Further, such articles often lack features that allow for convenient, sanitary disposal of the article.
The present invention combines the benefits of a conventional diaper with those of a "pull-on" type diaper. Further, the diaper of the present invention can comfortably and effectively fit a large range of wearer sizes. These unique characteristics are provided by the inventive coordination of special ear panels and fastening elements. The ear panels and fastening elements work together to solve the problems encountered in earlier attempts to provide some of the features of the present invention. For example, the present invention can be fitted to a wide range of wearers in the conventional configuration and provide excellent containment and comfort characteristics due to the ability of the ear panels to provide a snug fit when fitted to small wearers as well as a snug comfortable fit to much larger wearers. The refastenable fastening system provides a strong closure that can withstand the dynamic forces created by the motions of the wearer; the forces generally being different depending on the size and age of the wearer. Further, structural design of the diaper provides the user with the opportunity to use the diaper as a pull-on. The unique ear panels provide the necessary stretch to effectively accommodate a large range of wearers as well as the stretch needed to provide for easy application as a pull up diaper. Again, the fastening system complements the ear panels to provide a strong closure, yet still provides a means for removing the pull-on by opening the closures rather than pulling the diaper down over the hips of the wearer. This makes the removal of a soiled diaper a much quicker and cleaner without the need to remove the wearer's clothing. Furthermore, the refastenable fastening system provides a pull-on user with the ability to check for soiling of the diaper by opening one or more of the closures rather than removing the diaper completely. Also, the absorbent article of the present invention can easily be configured with a disposal feature (often the fastening system) which provides a convenient, sanitary means for disposing of the soiled article.
In the past, diapers designs attempting to provide the benefits described above have been generally unable to solve the problems associated with providing a diaper that effectively and comfortably fits a large range of wearer sizes as well as provides at least two ways in which the diaper may be constructed and fit to the wearer. In attempting to fit a large range of wearers, previous diaper designs (both conventional and pull-on) have generally been loose and ineffective containing the waste of small wearers while being extremely tight, uncomfortable and unable to withstand the dynamic forces produced by large wearers. Further, many pull-on designs lacked any means for checking the diaper for soiling without removal of the diaper and often the wearer's clothing. Likewise, pull-on designs generally lack any means for removing a soiled diaper without having to tear one or more elements (generally seams) of the diaper which can renders the diaper useless if checked for soiling. Also, pull-on diapers generally lack any means for convenient disposal.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having a refastenable fastening system and stretchable ear panels designed to allow the absorbent article to be fitted to the wearer in a conventional or "pull-on" configuration.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article that will effectively and comfortably fit a large range of wearer sizes in either a conventional or a pull-on configuration.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a pull-on diaper having a means for inspecting the diaper for soiling without removing the diaper from the wearer.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a diaper that can be fitted to a wearer or removed as a pull-on or a conventional diaper.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a diaper capable of being fitted to the wearer in a pull-on configuration having a convenient, sanitary means for disposal.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.